For one year, at least, Nippon Professional Baseball has been the prime destination for Cuban ballplayers wishing to play overseas legally, but those days may be numbered.
Following Thursday's sudden policy shift by the United States toward normalizing relations with Cuba, the possibility looms that Cuba's prized stars will soon find it easy to play in Major League Baseball, a goal that for 50 years required them to flee their homeland and go into exile.
Yomiuri Giants president Hiroshi Kubo, whose team signed superstar outfielder Frederich Cepeda as well as 20-year-old right-hander Hector Mendoza and a Cuban coach, said, "We don't know what's going to happen. We'll wait and see, but we're planning to contact the Cuban authorities before long."